Ethernet local area networks are in wide use today. The term Ethernet is often used to refer to carrier sense multiple access/collision detection (CSMA/CD) local area networks (LANs) that generally conform to Ethernet specifications, including the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.3 standard (published Jul. 29, 1996).
Basic Ethernet transmission, such as 10 Base-T, is capable of a data transmission rate of 10 Megabits per second (Mbps). The need for greater data rates has led to the development of “Fast Ethernet” and “Gigabit Ethernet” technology that transmits data at rates up to 1 gigabits per second (Gbps). At such high speeds, link integrity is very important and as a result, it is desirable to analyze channels that form the link. However, such analysis typically requires inducing loss of the link itself.
Thus after channel analysis, set-up processes for the link must again be performed. Such processes include autonegotiation, which is a mechanism specified in the IEEE 802.3 standard in which network entities at either end of a link segment automatically determine the data rate at which the link segment will operate. Using autonegotiation, each network entity compares what Ethernet implementation it supports to what implementation the network entity at the other end supports. Such an autonegotiation process and other set-up processes such as link convergence are expensive to perform. Thus a need exists to analyze channels without link loss.